Holiday Highway
by Ritardata Ghiaccio Fatina
Summary: Slice of Life. Just another Holiday season for Sonic and his friends. See how they choose to spend it with the people important to them.
1. Chapter 1

**Holiday Highway**

Chapter 1

AN: This is written assuming you have a general idea of the general cast of Sonic, though some creative liberties are taken in general. I also don't own anything.

* * *

"One, two, three four!"

After two deep breaths, the room remained silent save softly swishing tails and an out of tune whistling duet of 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing'. Sonic and Tails, the impromptu performers of this duet, occupied themselves by taking intermittent breaths and decorating the tree standing in a corner of the room.

Their decorating finished as their whistling did, and the performing duo stepped back to look at their work. Satisfied with the result, Sonic gave a thumbs up to his brother in all but blood and said, "Great work with the decorating, bro! I think you were a little slow on the song, though."

Tails smiled and replied, "Thanks Sonic. But, I think you were just going too fast."

"Me, too fast? You're crazy, bro," Sonic said as he chuckled. "But seriously dude. You know we don't just sing carols, we sing-"

"Super Sonic Carols," Tails finished, smiling at the concept.

"Got that right! There's no way you can have one of those be too fast, right?"

"I guess you're right...this time."

Interest glimmering in Sonic's eyes, he wore a challenging smirk. "'This time'? Is that a challenge?"

Tails returned Sonic's smirk with one of his own. "And if it is?"

"Then challenge accepted!"

Tails laughed and said, "I guess this proves me right from when I said you were too eager to accept a challenge yesterday."

Sonic stepped back in shock, the event Tails mentioning returning to him. "Wait, what!?" Sonic exasperatedly slapped his forehead in defeat. "Darn! I can't believe a forgot that!"

"And you were so serious about proving me wrong," Tails said with a grin. Holding his hand out, he said, "Now pay up."

Sonic narrowed his eyes, thinking carefully before replying, "We didn't bet."

"...Darn. I guess I was pushing my luck a little."

"That you were," turning to look back at the tree, Sonic gazed at it for a while before commenting, "Y'know, something seems...missing."

"Missing?" Tails followed Sonic's gaze and found what spurned Sonic's comment. "Oh, that. Don't you remember? Amy broke our star last year."

"Oh, yeah..." Sonic said as he shuddered at the memory. "She was a little scary. Glad we're not celebrating over here this year."

"A little is a bit of an understatement," Tails replied as he looked at the star-less top of the tree. "Anyway, we should probably go out and get a new one before the weather gets too bad-it's supposed to snow up a storm pretty soon."

"I suppose. We should probably go grocery shopping too-We ran out of buns last night."

Tails grimaced as he remembered the previous night. "Oh yeah. Eating Chili dogs on regular bread was...ugh. We're also out of mustard."

"...Dude, I have no idea how you can eat Chili dogs with mustard on them."

"The same way you eat your Chili dogs with all the stuff you put on yours."

Sonic Shrugged. "Good point," Preparing to run out the door, Sonic said, "anyway, let's go!"

"Sonic wait! Shouldn't we-" Tails tried to say as Sonic left. "Oh forget it. Better hurry up..."

Tails sighed as he rushed outside to catch up to his brother, making sure to close the door.

* * *

Cream smiled as she exited her school building, feeling the frigid winter breeze on her face. Though the volume of the exclamations her classmates are making over their temporary recess from school made her involuntarily wince, she too was as jubilant as they were. Thinking of the good times she'll have during her time off of school kept her continuing to walk home despite the noise and cold. A steadily growing group around where guardians would pick up their children piqued her curiosity, especially as her keen hearing picked up a boy in the crowd saying, "Shadow, you're so cool!"

Cream stopped walking and turned to face the area where Shadow supposedly was. Confused what would make the black hedgehog come out to a place like this, she let her curiosity get the better of her and made her way through the crowd (apologizing along the way). As she made it to the front of the crowd, she saw what was indeed Shadow the Hedgehog, sitting on his motorcycle, an expression on his face growing increasingly impatient and annoyed by the second. The young rabbit called out to him, "Mr. Shadow! What are you doing here?"

The hedgehog in question, having heard Cream, turned to face her, though he stopped as he heard a boy in the crowd say, "Oh shut up rabbit girl! Shadow doesn't need a lamer like you cramping his style!"

Shadow turned to the boy. He was an avian who couldn't be that much older than Cream. Shadow narrowed his eyes and clenched his teeth into a threatening glare at the boy. The boy (and most of the other people who were facing Shadow at the time) paled as if they were seeing Death with his scythe raised. The crowd quickly dissipated, commenting on how they had to meet up with their parents, or get home before the weather turned foul. Cream moved closer to Shadow and repeated her previous question.

Shadow faced Cream, smiling at the more favorable condition. "Your mother asked me to pick you up. It's supposed to snow pretty hard soon. And don't call me Mister."

Cream nodded in acceptance and jumped onto Shadow's motorcycle. "Aren't you cold though?" She asked, referring to Shadow's lack of clothes suitable for winter.

"I'm fine," Shadow replied immediately. In truth, the wind battering him did make him feel a little chilled, but it was mostly tolerable.

Cream, however, didn't have any of that. She said, "Here, you can have my scarf," and continued to wrap it around Shadow's neck before he could even attempt to refuse.

Shadow's pride was thankful that the young rabbit's winter clothes were more focused on practicality rather than fashionability. The solid white scarf certainly warmed him up. "You ready to go?"

Cream wrapped her arms around Shadow's waist and replied, "Yes, let's go."

The duo's ride to Cream's house continued without complications in mutual silence. As Shadow pulled up to Cream's house, Vanilla called out to them, "Cream! Shadow! I presume you had a safe trip?"

Shadow nodded as Cream ran to give her mother a hug. Smiling, Cream told her mother, "I'm finally out of school for the holidays mom! Is Cheese inside?"

Vanilla nodded and said, "Yes, you should get inside and feed him something," Turning to face Shadow, she added, "Thank you for picking up my daughter. It'd be dreadful if she got caught up in bad weather."

After watching the younger rabbit run inside, Shadow replied, "It was no problem. I'll be going now..."

Before Shadow could drive off, Vanilla asked him, "Won't you stay for an early dinner?" Before Shadow could refuse she added, "We're having pot roast."

Shadow paused in his refusal, the prospect of a (in his ultimate opinion) culinary genius cooking one of his favorite foods and his growing (but still tolerable) hunger slowly but surely proving to be more important than any of his nonexistent evening plans. He said, "Well, I suppose I don't have anything better to do today..." with a sigh.

Satisfied with the hedgehog's response, Vanilla beckoned him to come inside and said, "That's great, now come inside before your quills freeze like that."

Holding in a comment about how he doubted that would happen, Shadow followed the elder rabbit inside. Noticing Cream's coat on a nearby coat rack, Shadow took off Cream's scarf and hung it up with the rest of Cream's winter gear. Walking further into the house, he noticed Cream feeding Cheese a square shaped fruit. The young girl, surprised at Shadow's appearance, exclaimed, "Shadow! What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to stay for dinner." A pause. "Do you know when it'll be ready?"

Shadow was able to hear the faint sound of Vanilla's voice coming from the kitchen, though he couldn't make out what she was saying. Cream, however, could. "It'll be ready pretty soon. Ten minutes max." Cream quickly covered her mouth after saying this, quickly adding, "Sorry Shadow! I know you don't like it when mom and I talk like that. Mom's sorry too. We're just kind of used to it-"

Shadow cut her off before she could apologize anymore. "It's fine, it's fine. I'm getting used to it." Shadow paused as he struggled to think of a new topic to talk about.

Cream, noticing that Cheese had finished his fruit, gently scratched the back of the Chao's head. Cheese smiled and gave a content sigh. Satisfied with Cheese's happiness, Cream faced Shadow again. "While we wait, maybe you could tell Cheese and I a story about you and Maria?"

The question wasn't totally out of nowhere-the young rabbit had shown great interest in the many misadventures Shadow and Maria had had during their time together on the Space Colony ARK. Looking into the rabbit's wide eyes, the older hedgehog could see a familiar curiosity in them. '_Curiosity, and a desire to learn...just like Maria...' _Smiling as he searched through the memories of the good times he had with Maria, Shadow finally started, "Well, there was one time, when Maria and I found Professor Gerald's stash of candy..."

(Time Break)

...and that's how Maria and I got all of our cherry lollipops."

Cream smiled at Shadow's finish, while Cheese clapped. "That was very interesting Shadow, thank you for telling me," as an afterthought, she added, "Maybe we could get some cherry lollipops someday?"

"Maybe we can," Shadow replied as he softly pet Cheese's head.

Cream stood up, telling Shadow, "I think dinner should be ready now."

Shadow nodded and followed the rabbit into the kitchen. As they walked in, Vanilla gave them their plates already filled with food, along with a smaller plate for Cheese. When Shadow attempted to bring up the generous portion he had been given, Vanilla quickly cut him off and said, "Eat up-you look like you're just skin and bones."

Shadow shifted uncomfortably in his chair for a second, then dug in regardless, feeling much more hungry than he was a while ago. After taking a few bites, Shadow commented, "This is really good. Thank you, Vanilla."

Cream and Cheese both nodded in agreement. Vanilla smiled and thanked the trio. After a pause, she added, "Shadow, can I ask you to do something for me?"

Shadow swallowed the portion of food he was eating. "What is it?"

"Would you mind watching Cream for a bit?"

Cream, apparently not knowing anything about this, exclaimed, "Mom!? You'll be leaving?"

"Don't worry Cream, I just have to go out of town for a bit. I'll be home by Christmas Day."

"But..."

Vanilla wrapped a comforting arm around her daughter. "Don't worry Cream... You were planning on spending Christmas Eve with your friends anyway, right? I'll be back soon, I swear."

Cream nodded. "I guess I'll be okay... Stay safe mom!"

Vanilla laughed. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to. Sorry Shadow, what was your response?"

Shadow, having stayed silent through Vanilla comforting her daughter, answered, "Well, since Rouge managed to convince GUN into giving us some time off... It shouldn't be a problem."

"That's good," after saying this, Vanilla took on a stern tone, "Be sure to feed her something other than junk food this time!"

Shadow and Cream looked at each other and laughed nervously.

* * *

Blaze wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. What possessed her to even go outside in this weather? Why is it so freaking cold? Questions like this pestered constantly with the crunching of snow beneath her shoes. Looking around her at the remarkably empty streets, Blaze commented to herself, "It's too cold out now... I should probably go home..." Before she could make any plans to get back, a lone occupant of a nearby bench caught her attention. Looking more closely, Blaze noticed snow covered pink quills and a grumpy expression that had to belong to Amy. Hastily brushing off some of the snow on herself, Blaze called out to the other girl as she approached her, "Amy! Hi!"

Amy turned to face Blaze, the grumpy expression quickly leaving her face. Smiling, she said, "Hey Blaze! What are you doing out in this weather?"

"I...don't really know," Blaze flatly stated. Taking a quick look of the surroundings, Blaze found a slightly snow covered set of footprints. Turning back to Amy, the lavender feline asked, "Chasing Sonic again?"

"Yes! He was SO rude this time!" Amy said angrily, sparks of her previous temper flaring back up. "I mean, I just say, 'Hi Sonic! How are you today?' and he just shrieks and grabs Tails and says," at this point she attempted to sound like Sonic, "'Gotta speed, keed!' Honestly! How old does he think he is!?"

Blaze brushed some snow off of the bench and sat beside Amy. "I'm sure he didn't mean anything harmful by it..." As Blaze put a comforting arm around Amy, she quickly recoiled, "You're freezing!"

As if suddenly hit by a burst of cold air, Amy started shivering a little. "Oh? Y-you're right. I g-guess I was too angry t-to notice..."

Blaze paused to think a little. "Y'know, I passed a cafe a block or two ago... How about I treat you to some hot chocolate?"

Pleased with the idea Amy brightened up a little, "Th-that sounds like a g-g-good idea. Thank's Blaze."

Blaze turned away to hide her blush. Standing up, she said, "Good, um... Here, I'll help you up." She then offered her hand to the pink hedgehog.

Amy took her hand and commented, "G-guess I was sitting for longer than I th-thought. Let's g-g-go."

Not wanting to spend another minute in the cold, Blaze quickly led Amy to the cafe. Amy let out a sigh of relief as they entered the cafe clad in holiday decor. Hearing the sounds of holiday music throughout the building and the overall lack of chatter, Blaze turned to Amy and said, "How about you find us somewhere to sit while I order?"

"OK, be sure to say yes if they ask if you want whipped cream."

"I'll be sure to," noticing baked goods for sale as well, Blaze commented to herself softly, "I wonder if Amy is hungry...? Probably, considered she was just chasing Sonic around... She likes croissants, right...? I'll get a couple of those too."

After ordering and receiving her order, Blaze was able to quickly find Amy, sitting alone at a table looking a little grumpy. Noticing Blaze coming, she said, "Blaze, you didn't have to get me anything to eat."

"I thought you'd be hungry...sorry."

Amy sighed. "It's fine."

Handing Amy her hot chocolate and croissant, Blaze looked at the other girl curiously. "Is there something wrong?"

"I'm fine, this song just...rubs me the wrong way, I guess."

Listening to the presently playing song, Blaze commented, "Für Elise? What's wrong with it?"

"I don't know, I just don't like it."

"I guess that's as good a reason as any." Blaze took a sip of her hot chocolate.

The duo warmed up with their hot chocolates in silence as Für Elise ended. Amy brightened up considerably as the next song started. "Ooh! It's O Tannenbaum! I love this song!" Amy started to hum along with the song between her eating and drinking. As the song ended, Amy said, "Thanks for taking me out here, Blaze."

Blaze, who had been watching the cheerful hedgehog with a smile on her face, said, "Huh? Oh, it was nothing. No worries," looking outside of a window, she added, "OK, maybe we should worry about the snow."

"Snow worries, huh?" Amy joked, eliciting a giggle from Blaze. "It can't be too bad. Next round is on me, okay?"

* * *

Rouge's ears twitched as she walked through her residence, book under her arm. Checking every corner, listening for any sound. Satisfied with whatever result she got, the bat walked to a sitting room and took a seat with a lamp nearby. A soft, mechanical humming making his presence known, E-123 Omega asked her, "Are you going to proceed with your reading?"

"Yes Omega, thanks for asking," Rouge replied as she searched through a nearby side table.

"Your procedure for this activity is illogical."

"I suppose I might go a little overboard with it, but..." Finding what she was looking for, a pair of reading glasses, she turned to Omega and said, "We all have our little quirks that make us who we are."

"I suppose." The robot replied as Rouge put on her glasses.

"Besides, I look like an idiot in these."

Omega remained silent for a moment, save for the hum of his machinery. He then responded, "Databanks show that glasses traditionally make a person look intelligent."

Fondly smiling at the robot, Rouge opened her book and said, "Oh Omega, you can be such a dear."

"Incorrect-I am a robot, not a deer."

A sigh. "I meant you're dear to me."

"Understood."

Still smiling from their exchange, Rouge started to read her book. After staring down the first page for a few minutes, Rouge closed the book. Omega turned to her at this sound and asked, "Is there a problem?"

"I don't know, I just feel distracted." Rouge looked around the room they were in. Most notable were the several shelves containing pictures. Walking over to a nearby shelf, Rouge observed the pictures. There were about four pictures on the shelf, all of them containing pictures of her family.

The first picture was of her mother, sisters, and herself about 10 years ago. Rouge smiled at the family of bats in the picture, she was fond of attention at that age. The next picture was of Rouge and her two sisters, one younger and one older, all smiling at the camera. The picture was a little more recent than the previous one. The third was of Rouge's mother giving a young Rouge her first piece of jewelry. Rouge laughed softly at that picture. The final picture was the most recent-Rouge's mother standing next to her when she had first joined GUN. Rouge looked fondly on her past memories, but couldn't help but feel something was missing. "Omega, does something seem...missing on this shelf to you?"

The robot turned to face the shelf, running measurements and algorithms as he looked at it. "Calculations determine that if all objects are moved approximately 5.36 centimeters to the left, one more picture can be added to the shelf."

Rouge frowned a little at the mostly unhelpful answer. Rouge tapped her foot against the floor as she thought about the problem. Soon enough, she was struck by an epiphany. Moving the pictures to the left as Omega had previously suggested, she walked to another shelf in the room, grabbing a picture from there and moving it to the now open spot. Rouge smiled at the new picture, taken much more recently than all the other ones-in fact, it was only about a month prior. The picture was of Shadow and Rouge riding on Omega's shoulders, with Cream sitting on Rouge's lap. The two girls were smiling at the camera, while Shadow was simply looking at it. Omega, unfortunately, didn't have a proper face, but Rouge was sure he'd be smiling if he did. "There, that looks better." Rouge said with a smile, content at her small bout of redecorating.

As Rouge sat down to return to her book, Omega asked her, "Will rearranging pictures become part of your reading procedure?"

A sigh. "No Omega, I think this was a one time thing."

"Understood."

* * *

A/N-Finished. I think I have several problems with this, but a huge pile of emo at the end of story isn't attractive to read. Though I feel the Shadow & Cream part was just obnoxious in length, and the Sonic & Tails part borrows too much from Sonic Colors. Shadow's food preferences come from the fact that I had pot roast the other day, and the best result I got from googling 'Shadow's favorite food' was 'Those big cherry lollipops Maria used to give him'. I left out a couple of comments, but I suppose those can wait.

I say this is a slice of life, and by that I mean that this is mostly intended to be just an average Christmas for the cast, maybe not the most interesting, but I like it well enough. There will be more chapters though. I realize some of the bonds I've chosen to give the characters can be iffy with some people, but I hope I can make them seem good enough to read. I personally like all of them, but I'm not everyone, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

Holiday Highway kind of sounds like the name of a Sonic stage, doesn't it? I like it a lot, though I don't feel it fits the story very well.

I kind of had a fit of Christmas spirit and decided to write fanfiction... Now I just have to try and finish this by Christmas! CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. I don't think I made too many fuck ups with grammar, so...

I don't think I have anything else to say, so leave a review and tell me something you liked, or a question you have (I feel that I left some things a little unclear, but I think that's just paranoia), or (most importantly) something you thought I could do better (or any combo of the three). Or you could point out the stupid jokes I made!

Peace.


	2. Chapter 2

**Holiday Highway**

Chapter 2

AN-I don't own anything.

* * *

"So, remind me why we're here again?" Sonic said as he agitatedly flourished his arms around, referring to the shopping mall he was currently in.

Tails sighed and said, "We need to finish our Christmas shopping. Or start, I suppose, considering we still haven't bought anything..."

Sonic cried out in frustration. "Why do we have to stay here for so LONG!?"

"We've only been here for an hour."

"An hour where we still haven't got anything done."

Tails thought about it for a moment. "Touché. Let's get started with..." Tails looked at the list of names he was carrying. "Um..."

Sonic, looking at the list too, said, "Well, girls are too hard to shop for so we'll save them for later. That leaves..."

"Shadow, Knuckles, Omega..."

"Wait, Omega? I mean, he's probably the coolest thing the Eggster ever came up with, but does he really want something for Christmas?"

Tails scratched his chin. "Well, there are some new paints coming out that are resistant to bullets, we could get him some new parts...or maybe I can give him a free tune up."

"You just want to work with him, don't you?"

"Why wouldn't I? All the stuff I could learn...imagine if I could start creating my own robots..."

Sonic gave Tails a thumbs up. "They'd certainly blow anything GUN has out of the water, bro!"

"Well, I wouldn't say that...but it'd be pretty cool regardless."

"Yeah, totally." Sonic scratched his head. "But, I think he'd be more happy if we just gave him a crate of machine gun ammo from the munitions store."

"Yeah, I think...wait, this place has a munitions store?"

"Bro, this place has EVERYTHING."

"Huh, is that so...also, Silver might come, so-"

Sonic cut Tails off. "Wait, Silver? The guy whose head looks like an illegal substance?"

Tails choked back his laughter. "Yeah, that guy. Um...who should we start with first?"

"Well... I have no idea what Shadow would want..."

"We could get Knuckles gem polish?"

"Eh...last time we made a joke about him and the Master Emerald he got pretty ticked off, maybe we should lay off the gem jokes."

"Oh yeah," Tails said as he remembered the mentioned event, "I didn't think he would get so mad..."

"Yeah, so..." Sonic scratched his head as he looked at the list again. "Y'know, I heard Brad's Brats got this new Chili recipe..."

"Sonic, now is not the time to be thinking about food. We'll grab some lunch once we're done with half of the list."

Sonic sighed and said, "OK..."

The duo walked throughout the shopping mall, not finding anything, and eventually sat down on a bench in front of the food court. "So...is Brad's new chili recipe any good?"

"I don't know...I heard he's been running out pretty fast."

"Really? Maybe..."

"...We should go and get some now, just to be safe?"

"Yeah, just to be safe, we wouldn't want to miss out on lunch."

"Yeah."

The duo stood up and walked into the food court.

(Time Break)

Sonic and Tails walked out of the food court, chili dogs in both of their hands, and the food stains around their mouth showing that those weren't the only ones they had. Sonic took a bit of one of his chili dogs and, after swallowing, said, "Bro! These chili dogs are AWESOME!"

Tails swallowed the portion of the chili dog he'd been chewing and said, "No wonder he's been running out fast! This is delicious!"

"Delicious? This is one of the best chili dogs I've ever had!"

As the duo finished eating the chili dog they were currently eating, their faces fell as they were about to start on their next chili dogs. "We still need to do Christmas shopping."

"Dang. I swear, foiling Baldy McNosehair's plans is easier than this."

"You still call him Baldy McNosehair? Can't say I disagree with you though."

Sighing in remembrance of simpler times, Sonic and Tails were about to start devouring their last chili dogs when they were interrupted by a shrill cry. "SONIC!"

Tails panicked. "Oh crap it's Amy!"

Sonic tried to remain calm. "Dude, I think dealing with Amy is better than doing this shopping by ourselves!"

"I think you might be right, bro."

The brothers grimaced as Amy Rose got closer to them. Sonic held a hand out to prevent Amy from tackling him and quickly said, "Amy please help us with our Christmas shopping."

Amy looked between the hedgehog and fox confused. "What?"

"Please help us with our Christmas shopping."

Tails cut in. "We'll give you chili dogs!"

Amy paused for a second and said, "All right...?" Sonic and Tails jubilantly gave her their chili dogs, prompting her to ask, "Tails, how do you eat your chili dogs with mustard on them?"

Tails sighed. "This better not become a running gag."

* * *

Knuckles wrapped his arms around himself tighter as arctic winds picked up. The chill was nothing that could stand in his way as guardian of the Master Emerald. Knuckles looked around the shrine, seeing all the snow that had fallen. Judging by how much snow had reached this area of Angel Island, Knuckles could tell that the floating island's ice caps had already started their blizzard season. On the surface, many people called this 'winter.' Feeling chilled, Knuckles stood up and started to do some fighting exercises.

Two quick jabs and an uppercut. His fists were hard as diamonds.

Right hook, left hook, haymaker. His body was hard as stone.

A flurry of punches unleashed to the air. He was the guardian of the Master Emerald, none could stand before his might.

Knuckles could feel the Master Emerald's power inside of him, and he let out a warrior's cry as he unleashed this power into a devastating punch. Satisfied with the crater he left in the ground, as well as with the body heat his short workout had generated. Knuckles took a quick glance at the Master Emerald. No one was around. Taking this opportunity of solitude, Knuckles punched one of the nearby tall pillars, allowing the spikes on his namesakes to sink into the hard stone. Continuing the process, he climbed to the top of the pillar. Ignoring the frigid winds battering him at the top, Knuckles looked onto Angel Island. Looking around at all he could see past the falling snow, he could tell there was a thickening layer of snow covering Angel Island. The Ice Cap would be dangerous, he could barely make it out through the harsh blizzards surrounding it. Marble Garden too was receiving the brunt end of the blizzards common at this time of year. The way the sunlight gleamed on the waters of Carnival Night, Knuckles could tell it was frozen solid. The foliage of Mushroom Hill was covered in a think layer of sole visible area of Angel Island that wasn't effected by the blizzards was the arid Sandopolis Zone. Knuckles was not worried about the desert zone-it was part of the inland of Angel Island, so any thieves would typically avoid it.

Taking another quick glance around Angel Island, Knuckles drew one conclusion. It was practically impossible for any normal person, anthropomorphic or otherwise, to successfully get onto Angel Island. All possible ways onto the island were protected by blizzards, snow storms, and frigid cold. Knuckles wasn't a normal person. He jumped off the pillar he was standing on, a fatal fall for a normal person. Knuckles was the guardian of the Master Emerald. This fall, and this cold was nothing to him. Nothing that could stop him from performing his duty. Catching updrafts as he fell, the guardian of the Master Emerald slowed his descent as he fell and landed safely. The guardian returned to the steps and sat down, satisfied with Angel Island's security.

As Knuckles sat, eyes and ears open for any sign of thieves, he felt distressing feelings. He hadn't seen Sonic or Tails in a while. He wasn't worried about the two-after all they had went through, the hedgehog and fox were almost as tough as the guardian himself. However, Knuckles found himself longing for the adventurous lifestyle the led. No trouble had reached Angel Island for a long time- and for that, the echidna was grateful-but there was still a desire to explore the surface world. Knuckles looked at the Master Emerald. "It's a shame that I can't talk to the spirits inside of you, Master Emerald." Knuckles said to his charge. "The way Angel Island's weather has been recently is making it impossible for anyone to get on or off the island. Surely you can survive a little bit without my help..."

The Master Emerald remained silent. Mystical powers or not, it was still just a gemstone. Knuckles felt it would be safe even in his absence. Knuckles stood up, preparing to leave Angel Island. Leaving the floating island now would be impossible for a normal person, but Knuckles isn't a normal person. He knew all the secrets Angel Island held. Dropping into a nearby burrow, Knuckles headed for the Lava Reef. Normally, Knuckles would find the heat of this area as an annoyance, but the recent cold made him feel refreshed as he entered the lava-filled subterranean sector of Angel Island. Soon Knuckles found what he was looking for-a burrow to take him off of Angel Island.

Slipping through the burrow, Knuckles proceeded to free fall off of the island. Calling on the power of the Master Emerald to aid him in catching updrafts of arctic wind, the guardian started to glide towards civilization.

* * *

"Not another commercial break..." Shadow growled.

Cream turned to face Shadow, distracted from feeding Cheese. The girl and her Chao were dropped off by Vanilla a while ago. "It can't be too bad," she commented. "Oh! Look at all the flowers on that commercial!"

Shadow watched the television again. As the younger girl had said, there were a variety of flowers being shown on screen. One kind of flower gave Shadow pause. "That's..."

Cream looked at Shadow, worry in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just thought I saw a Lily of the Valley just now."

"Is that Maria's favorite flower?"

Shadow, taken aback by the young girls perceptive ability, nodded. "She was interested in the field of botany," noticing Cream's confused expression, he added, "that's the study of plants. She enjoyed how the Lily of the Valley looked."

"All the flowers on the commercial looked nice, so it must have been really pretty."

"She found it beautiful." Shadow watched another commercial in boredom. "Are you hungry?"

"A little, why?"

"I'm going to order some pizzas." Shadow grabbed a nearby phone. "You like cheese pizza?" Noticing Cheese's confused expression, Shadow chuckled and said, "Not you, Cheese."

Cheese, realize that Shadow was talking about cheese the food rather than Cheese the Chao, clapped excitedly. Cream giggled and said, "Yes, cheese pizza is fine."

"All right." Shadow dialed the number of the pizza place and waited. "Hello? I would like to order a pizza with black olives and-oh crap wait a sec," Shadow rushed to cover Cream and Cheese's eyes from the scantly clad girls currently on the television. "Black olives and pepperoni, and a cheese pizza. That will be all. The order is for Shadow the Hedgehog. It'll be ready in...half an hour? We'll pick it up. Thank you. Good bye." Noticing the commercial Shadow was shielding his charges from had ended, Shadow uncovered their eyes.

"Shadow, what was-" Cream started.

"Pizza will be ready in half an hour, so we'll leave to pick it up in about 25 minutes." Shadow said, cutting her off. Noticing the commercial break about to end, Shadow changed the topic. "Look, the commercials are ending."

(Time break)

"C'mon, let's go." Shadow said, waiting by the door.

"Don't you have any winter clothes, Shadow?" Cream asked as she put on her coat.

"Eh..." Shadow thought about it for a few seconds. "Not really."

"Then wear my scarf again, I don't want you to be cold."

Taking Cream's scarf, Shadow sighed and wrapped it around his neck. "OK, let's go now?"

"I'm all ready."

The duo headed out the door. Shadow skated slower than his usual pace, so that Cream could keep up with him while running. After a couple of minutes, Shadow said, "We're stopping here."

Cream skidded to a stop and looked where Shadow was looking at. "A convenience store?"

Shadow pulled out a handful of rings and gave them to Cream. "Go in there and get a 2 liter cherry soda, and a 2 liter of your choice, then meet me back at my house. I'll pick up the pizzas. Got it?"

Cream nodded and walked into the convenience store as Shadow skated off to the pizza place he ordered from. Stepping into the store, Cream immediately went to the area where soda was being sold. Grabbing a cherry soda for Shadow, she grabbed an orange soda for herself and went to pay. Thanking the cashier as she left, Cream returned to Shadow's house to wait for him. As the black hedgehog skated into view, Cream called out to him, "Shadow! You got the pizzas?"

Shadow nodded as he approached her. "Can you hold these for a second?" He handed her the pizzas, then opened the door, taking the pizzas back when he was done. Walking back to the television, Shadow put the pizzas down. Cream handed Shadow his soda. "Where are the glasses?"

"What do you need glasses for?" Shadow asked as he opened his bottle of soda.

"To pour the soda in? Also, I want to get a glass of water for Cheese."

"You're the only one whose going to be drinking out of that soda, so you don't really need a glass." To emphasize his point, Shadow drank some of his soda straight from the bottle. "But they're to the left of the refrigerator if you need them."

Cream left and then returned with a glass of water, which she set in front of Cheese. Following Shadows example, she opened her soda and drank it straight from the bottle. Grabbing a slice of cheese pizza, she said, "This is the life, huh?"

Shadow, grabbing a slice of his pizza, replied, "Yep, it sure is."

* * *

Blaze tapped her foot impatiently, eager to get relief from the cold. She raised her hand to knock on it again, when it opened. Blaze sighed in relief and said, "It's about time you opened the door, Rouge."

"That's hardly a way to treat a host." Rouge said, moving out of the way to let Blaze come inside.

"I'll treat you more like a host once I've properly warmed up," Blaze said as she removed her coat.

"Then I'll be waiting patiently, dear," Rouge said as she walked to another room.

After taking off her winter gear, Blaze followed the bat. Feeling a sudden sense of unease, she looked around and noticed Omega looking at her intensely. Blaze gave and little wave and nervously said, "Um...Hi?"

Rouge laughed from another room and said, "That's just how Omega says hello, don't worry about him."

"OK, um...Later Omega."

Blaze started to walk down a hall, when Rouge called out to her, "Other way, Blaze."

Blaze promptly turned around and eventually found the room Rouge was in. "Just take a seat here," Rouge pulled out a chair for the cat, "and I'll come back to you soon." As Rouge walked out of the room, she added, "You can start talking now-don't worry, I'll hear you."

Blaze took the seat Rouge offered her. As she waited for the bat to return to the room, Blaze started to fidget nervously. Clearing her throat, she started to talk. "Um...Well, I spent some time with Amy the other day, and, uh..."

At this point Rouge returned to the room and set a wine glass out in front of Blaze. "Sorry about not being prepared, you're a little early." She set out another wine glass for herself. "Go on, go on, I'm listening." At this, she bit onto the cork of the wine bottle she was holding as an improvised way of opening it.

"Wine? I don't think we're old enough to drink..."

Yanking the cork out of the bottle, Rouge replied, "Well, this'll just be between you and me won't it? Besides," she started filling their glasses, "it's not like a little wine is going to kill you."

"...How did you get this stuff anyway?"

"Flirtatious coworkers don't realize I'm younger than I look, it would be rude to just refuse them. Shame really." Taking a sip from her glass, she added, "Drink up, I can't drink this whole bottle myself."

"But..."

Rouge cut her off with an over exaggerated sigh. She got up, left the room, and returned a moment later with a glass of water and some slices of bread. "If you're that scared, these can lessen the effects of the alcohol." Rouge looked at Blaze expectantly. "It's just a little wine-it's not vodka or anything strong."

Blaze took a small sip of the wine. "This isn't too bad..."

"Excellent, now can you stop changing the subject? You and Amy were...?"

"Well, I met her and we went to get some hot chocolate together..."

"So you two had an impromptu date," Rouge said in a teasing tone.

Blaze turned away to hide a blush. "Well, it wasn't really a date..."

Rouge sighed. "Stop drinking so fast," Blaze put down her wine glass. "Drink a little water. You're really bad with alcohol, aren't you?"

Putting down her water glass, Blaze replied, "It's my first time..."

"Well, it'll help you when you get Amy drunk enough so that she'll sleep with you." At Blaze's panicked stuttering, she added, "That was a joke Blaze. You're not that kind of person."

"Yeah...well, during the course of our...meeting, I kind of invited her to go with me to that new teahouse that opened a few days ago."

"You girls and your tea. So you invited her on another date?"

"No! But I actually told her that it was a date..."

"Uh...what?"

"It's like," Blaze took a sip of her wine, "I kind of asked her out for this, and she said yes, and then I said that it was a date, and-"

"OK, I got it. You're still going to meet up for your little tea party?"

"She said she was looking forward to it."

"Then she must've assumed you meant a date as friends."

"But..."

"Just stop worrying about problems that aren't there, OK? I'm sure Amy won't like it if you're being all emo."

"You're right." Feeling more confident, Blaze smiled. "Thanks Rouge, you really helped me out."

Returning Blaze's smile with one of her own, Rouge said, "Great. Now shut up and drink, we still have two-thirds of this bottle to go through."

* * *

AN-Finished. Note that, through most of Rouge & Blaze's part, Rouge is usually teasing Blaze about whatever. Take what you will from that. Knuckles' part was mostly him thinking to himself-it'd be a little odd if he spent his time talking to himself (though I don't think talking to the Master Emerald is much better). Other than that, I think everything else came out all right.

But of course, your opinion means as much as mine. So drop a review-Say something you liked, ask a question because I was hopelessly vague, or (most importantly) say something you thought I could do better.

Hmm, I felt like I had more to say here...


	3. Chapter 3

**Holiday Highway**

Chapter 3

AN-I don't own anything.

* * *

Sonic scratched his head. "Hey Tails. Who's this gift for?"

Tails turned from the gift he was currently wrapping to look at the gift in question. "Um... I think that's Blaze's."

"Didn't we already wrap Blaze's gift?"

"Did we? Can you check?"

"One second, bro." Sonic looked through the pile of sloppily wrapped gifts and started reading off the tags. "Let's see...Amy, Omega, Knuckles...Ah! Here's Blaze's! So is this one for Rouge?"

Looking at the gift Sonic was in the process of wrapping, Tails commented, "That looks a little too girly to be Rouge's."

"But we already wrapped Cream's."

"Did we?"

"Yeah, it's this box right here." Sonic motioned to a nearby wrapped box.

"We better not have messed up with the labeling..."

The two brothers looked at the gifts they had, hoping for their problems on which gift belongs to who to magically solve itself. They were pulled out of these thoughts by a heavy knocking on the door. "I'll get it!" Both said at the same time.

Tails scratched his chin. "How about you finish wrapping that gift while I answer the door?"

Sonic wasn't one to give up easily. "Hey, since you seem to know who this belongs to-"

Tails cut him off. "Just give it to Rouge." Leaving the room, the fox called out, "Hold on a second!" Tails started talking again as he opened the door. "Sorry about that, Sonic and I were-Knuckles!"

In the doorway stood the red guardian of the Master Emerald himself. "Hey there Tails," he said, scratching the back of his head, "anything happening?"

Tails shook his head. "Nope. We're just wrapping presents."

"Wrapping presents? For what?" The echidna tilted his head in a confused manner.

Sonic walked into the room. "Oh come on! Don't tell me you don't know what Christmas is, Knucklehead!"

"Shut up!" Knuckles retorted on instinct. Thinking for a moment, he then calmly asked, "Does it have something to do with the gifts you usually bring to Angel Island this time of year?"

Sonic put an arm around Knuckles' shoulders. "Ding ding! Score one for the Knuxster."

"Please don't call me that again."

Sonic chuckled. "Whatever you say, Knux."

"Anyway..." Tails started, "Christmas is a holiday that started a while ago, though nowadays it's mostly a commercial holiday where people exchange gifts among their friends and family. We usually do a gift exchange with our friends." Tails motioned to the room he and Sonic were wrapping gifts in before.

"So I should get you guys something?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, it's a little late to go Christmas shopping, and since you didn't know we can't really hold it against you."

"I'll think of something." Knuckles was interrupted by a growl. "And, uh...Can I have something to eat?"

Sonic laughed as he returned to the wrapping room. Tails said, "There's some leftover chili in the fridge."

"Of course..."

After preparing a chili dog for himself, Knuckles went to the room Sonic and Tails were in. As the guarding sat down, Sonic asked, "What, no chili dogs for us?"

"Shut up and make your own, if you need them that badly." Knuckles replied. As an afterthought, he added, "Speaking of which, I noticed mustard in the fridge. Since all you two eat here are chili dogs, how do you eat a chili dog with mustard on it?"

Tails facepalmed.

* * *

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

The crunching of the snow beneath her boots was all Rouge heard as she walked towards Shadow's house, idly tapping her fingers against the sealed bowl she was holding. As she got close to the house, she started to strain her ears, attempting to hear anything. As she got closer and closer, she could make out the sounds of a television. Her eyes narrowed in frustration. "I swear, if they've been up all night watching television..." She sighed. "I suppose Shadow is an adult, but he shouldn't set such a bad example for Cream." Thinking for a moment, she added, "Well, I suppose I'm not the best role model either, but at least I try..."

Rouge put the bowl under her arm as she searched one of her pockets for a spare key to Shadow's house. As she unlocked the door, she strained her ears again, this time hearing a faint snoring being drowned out by the sound of the television. Rouge sighed as she walked into Shadow's kitchen, placing her bowl on a free counter. Tapping her nails against the counter, Rouge debated with herself on whether to check on Shadow, Cream, and Cheese. They were probably all just sleeping soundly on a couch, yet she had a feeling that she should check up on them anyway. Walking silently to the room she knew they were all in, she did indeed see the trio sleeping on a couch, with a few empty pizza boxes and soda bottles lying around. Rouge sighed at the sight-she knew they were just going to eat a bunch of junk food. The bat scanned the couch-Shadow and Cheese were sleeping soundly, but Cream seemed to be tossing and turning in her sleep. Growing worried, Rouge silently creeped up to the young rabbit, not wanting to wake her up. Getting a closer look, the older bat could tell that Cream was having a nightmare. As she gently tried to shake the young girl awake, she couldn't help but throw a nasty look at Shadow. Noticing that Cream still wouldn't wake, Rouge softly whispered, "Wake up Cream...it's just a dream."

At Rouge's words, Cream started to wake up. Eyes still half closed, she looked at Rouge tiredly and whispered, "Rouge...?"

Rouge whispered back, "Did you have a nightmare?" Cream nodded. "You poor thing..."

Rouge helped Cream get up from the couch and led her to the kitchen. As she pulled out a chair for Cream to sit on, the younger girl said softly, "Thank you."

Rouge smiled at her and looked through Shadow's refrigerator. She whispered, "Would you like any milk? That's all Shadow really has."

Cream whispered back, "Milk would be fine, thank you."

Rouge smiled slightly at their whispered conversation. Ever since she had moved out, away from her family, she often had to deal with conversations at normal volumes. Even as she grew used to these, she still missed the whispered conversations that only two people with excellent hearing can have. Rouge poured a glass of milk for the young rabbit and gave it to her. Grabbing a couple of plates, she asked, "I made a fruit salad because I had a feeling you three wouldn't eat anything healthy." Judging by Cream's guilty expression, she was right. "Would you like some?"

Cream nodded, and Rouge made plates for both of them. The two ate in silence for about a minute. Rouge, noticing that Cream's eating had slowed to merely moving some food around on her plate, asked, "Do you want to talk about your nightmare?"

After considering it, Cream nodded. Rouge moved closer to Cream and placed a comforting hand on the young girl's shoulder. Cream started to tell the older bat about her nightmare. "It started on Christmas Day, when Shadow was going to drop me off at home. Everything seemed to be gong well, but mom wasn't home. She never came home..." Tears started to fall from Cream's eyes as she sniffled. "I kept waiting and waiting, but mom never came home..."

Rouge pulled Cream closer to her as the young girl began crying. "Cream...you miss your mom, don't you?" Cream nodded. "Don't worry, I'm sure your mom will come home safe and sound."

The crying girl looked up at her. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I work for GUN, I know a lot of things."

Satisfied with the answer, Cream started to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Thank you, Miss Rouge..."

"What did I say about calling me 'Miss'?"

Cream gave a slight smile. "You're not old enough to be a miss yet."

"That's right," Rouge replied, patting Cream on the head.

After returning to her breakfast, the younger girl looked at Rouge curiously. "Rouge...Do you miss your family?"

"Of course."

"Would you mind telling me about them?"

"I don't see why not. I have a mother and two sisters-one younger, one older."

"It must be nice having sisters."

"It can be tough at times, but it all works out in the end." Chuckling, Rouge continued, "Our mother has high expectations for all of us. She's still angry at Clair-my younger sister-for being so into extreme sports."

"That doesn't sound very nice..."

"She's just worried about her, skateboarding and the like can be dangerous, you know?"

Cream nodded in agreement, having had her fair share of wipeouts on Extreme Gear. "I'm sorry for speaking poorly of your mom, Rouge..."

"Don't be-she could be downright cold sometimes. I think the first time she ever showed pride in me was when I joined GUN." A pause. "Though I suppose some of that could come from the success of Marin, my older sister. She was rather similar to our mom."

"What did Marin do?"

"She currently runs a successful vacation resort by Seaside Hill. You know, being a businesswoman and the like."

"That sounds nice."

"It's supposed to be rather nice, though I've never stayed there." Her ears twitched-someone else was waking up. "Finish your breakfast, I think I need to talk to Shadow a little about balanced diets."

* * *

Vector sighed as he waited at his desk, longingly looking at the small tree sitting on it. Since Espio and Charmy didn't celebrate Christmas, Vector had decided to stop celebrating as well. It also helped that the detective business really didn't bring in enough money to go Christmas shopping in full fervor. As much as he understood why he stopped celebrating, he never stopped missing waking up Christmas morning and finding gifts under a tree. At least during other times of the year it was rather easy to ignore, but now that the holiday season was in full swing, the crocodile found it much more difficult to ignore these feelings. Vector looked around the office. Espio and Charmy weren't in at the time, and the phone remained silent. It seemed that even the criminals were too caught up in holiday fever to commit their usual crimes. Vector sat silently, waiting for the phone to ring, when he suddenly cried out, "I got it!"

Reaching in his desk for the book he used to manage the finances of Team Chaotix, he grabbed the book and opened it to the current month. "Okay," he said to himself, "if I take the rent of our building out of my pay, I'll be left with...and splitting that up..." Vector quickly grabbed a nearby calculator. Punching some numbers into the machine, Vector grinned. As he was about to write in the finance book, the door opened. Espio and Charmy walked into the office, carrying some groceries. Vector quickly set down the pen he was holding.

"Vector, you have our finance book open. Why?" Espio asked, placing the bags he was holding on a free surface.

"Uh, no reason!" Vector said in a panicked tone.

Charmy dropped his bags by Espio's and said, "Well, it's a good thing that it's open, 'cuz Espio and I were thinking-" Espio gave the young bee a severe glance. "OK, Espio was thinking about something."

"Huh? What would that be Espio?"

"You've typically been depressed this time of year," Espio explained, "I presumed that it was because of the holidays. So I felt that, in spirit of the holidays, Charmy and I should let you use our salary to give yourself a bonus."

"What!? That's what I was gonna do for you guys!"

"Heey~! We're all thinking on the same page!" Charmy sang.

"You didn't come up with any of this Charmy." Vector and Espio retorted at the same time.

"Aww..."

"Well, I'll just take enough money to pay the rent and-" Vector started.

Espio interrupted, "No, Charmy and I won't need any personal money for now, so you should have-"

"Guys! Guys!" Charmy tried to say something.

"No way! You guys don't even celebrate, and-" Vector started again.

Espio interrupted again, "-and because of that, you shouldn't give us anything-"

"GUYS!" Charmy yelled.

"WHAT!?" Vector and Espio yelled back.

"I got an idea!" Charmy said, grinning widely.

"What is it Charmy." Vector said unenthusiastically.

"What if we pool all the money together and get something nice for all of us?"

"That sounds like a good idea." Espio said after some consideration. "We could get one of those computer rooms you keep going on about."

"Hey!" Vector said. "We're not getting something just for me!"

"Well, we could all make use of a computer room."

"Computer room! Computer room!" Charmy sang.

"Are you guys sure?" Vector asked. At Espio and Charmy's approval, he exclaimed, "All right guys! Let's go find a computer room!"

* * *

AN-Finished. Short chapter, but I suppose this is just wrapping up some loose ends to get the rest of the story moving as it should be. With Team Chaotix thrown in as a cameo appearance, for the sole purpose of a 'Find the Computer Room!' joke.

With these parts out of the way, the rest of the story should move relatively smoothly. I just need to get off my ass and work on them.

Leave a review if you'd like-say something you liked, ask a question, or say something you didn't like. You know-the usual deal.

Don't think I have anything else to say here...


	4. Chapter 4

**Holiday Highway**

Chapter 4

AN-I don't own anything.

* * *

Keeping an eye in front of him as he swerved between trees, Sonic ran through the forest. As he sped through the forest floor, he grinned at the thrills he was experiencing. Approaching a stream running through the forest, he jumped and grabbed onto a tree branch-he didn't want to take any chances. Swinging on the branch, he jumped off and the extra momentum propelled himself over the stream. He grit his teeth-apparently tree branches didn't make good poles to swing on. Ignoring the slight pain in his hands, he continued to run, eyes zooming as he took in everything around him. Noticing a small hill that curved similar to a ramp, Sonic grinned. It was unnecessary, but it was going to be awesome. Curling into a ball, Sonic launched onto the ramp in a spin dash, propelling himself high into the air. Uncurling, he whistled at the sight. "What a nice view," he commented to himself. Still free falling, he noticed three figures speeding through the forest. "Gotcha," he said, grinning and memorizing where they were heading.

Bracing himself for the fall, Sonic landed on his feet and took off running again. The figures were heading to the northeast, so Sonic followed that direction. As he got farther, he could eventually hear the sounds of Extreme Gear. He was close to them. Running faster, he chased the leader. Swerving between the other Extreme Gear riders, Sonic ran towards the leader. Sonic slowed down a bit as he passed the leader, letting the Extreme Gear rider catch up. Said rider exclaimed as he got a good look at Sonic, "Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"'Sup Jet?"

"What do you want?" Jet asked, agitated.

"Oh nothing much. Just wanted Wave's help with something."

"Wave?" Jet asked, sly smile on his face. "What, Fox boy not cutting it for you?"

"Tails is fine," as an afterthought, Sonic added, "unless he's doing something with the toaster."

"Then what do you want with MY mechanic?"

"I need someone who speaks geek to help me get some tools for him."

By this point, Sonic and Jet had slowed down enough that the other members of the Babylon Rogues were in talking distance to them. Wave, having heard the last remarks, sighed in annoyance. "Someone who speaks geek to get tools huh? Well, I guess I don't mind."

"That's great, what-"

Jet cut him off. "I can't let you do that, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Sonic grinned as he revealed that he was carrying his Extreme Gear. "Somehow, I knew you'd say that."

In an attempt to save later frustration, Wave said, "Uh guys, I need to grab some new tools anyway, so it won't be any trouble-"

"Wave! You should know that the boss is doing-" Storm attempeted to interject.

Wave responded by slapping her hand against her face. "Storm, stop being an idiot!"

Ignoring his bickering teammates, Jet said to Sonic, "I'd tell you the track, but since you'll just be following me I don't think it's worth the effort."

"Gutsy words! Got any speed to back 'em up?" Sonic retorted.

"More than you can imagine, Sonic the Hedgehog."

"So, if I win, you'll let me borrow Wave for a bit-"

"After we finish our practice." Jet interrupted. He also whispered to Sonic, "You'll thank me for that, Wave is...not a morning person, to say the least."

Sonic whistled as he looked back to see Storm nursing a bump on his head, presumably given to him by Wave. "I think I can see your point. What time do you think you'll be done?"

"Confident, aren't we?"

"You know it."

"You should probably meet her at the tool shop by the plaza around... 8 at night?"

"A little late, don't ya think?"

"She's more of a night owl."

"Or a night swallow, perhaps?" Sonic was chuckling at his own joke.

Jet rolled his eyes. "That was so funny I forgot to laugh. But this is only if you win."

"Well, they don't call me the fastest thing alive for nothing."

Tired of their bantering, Jet cried out, "We'll start on 3! 1! 2! 3!"

* * *

Sonic ran through the door, smile on his face. "Hey guys!" He said, waving at Tails and Knuckles. "Miss me?"

Tails turned to face him and said, "Where were you?"

"Just out for a little morning jog."

Knuckles snorted. "Probably on the other side of the world."

"Maybe I was," patting his stomach, he added, "anyway, I'm starved. Any leftover chili?"

"Do you two really have a diet consisting solely of chili dogs?"

"Of course not!" Tails said. "We eat other things too."

"Like what?"

"Like cooler things than grapes, Knux." Sonic answered, checking the refrigerator and ignoring the echidna's outcry. "Dang, we're out of chili." Sonic turned to look at Tails.

Tails laughed nervously. "Eh heh...I got a little too into my tinkering last night."

Sonic sighed. "Oh well, it was gonna run out sometime." Turning back to the door, Sonic said, "Well, let's get some take out then."

Knuckles held out a hand to stop the blue hedgehog. "Wait. I feel some...energy gathering here."

"Really?" Tails asked, interested. "What do you think it is?"

"It's similar to the Chaos Emeralds, but...different."

"That's helpful." Sonic commented dryly.

"Shut up!" Pointing at the center of the room, Knuckles said, "It's converging there!"

A portal opened, sitting in the area where Knuckles was pointing. Out of it stepped a silver hedgehog holding a gemstone. Checking his surroundings, the new hedgehog waved at the trio. "Hey guys!" He said.

"'Sup?" Sonic said, waving back.

"Hey it's you! Um..." Knuckles said, trying to remember the name of the new guest. As the silver hedgehog was about to answer, Knuckles exclaimed, "I remember! You're Pothead the Porcupine, right?"

Sonic and Tails almost immediately dropped to the floor in laughter. The silver hedgehog, on the other hand, was livid. "I'm Silver!" He shouted, a glow surrounding his body.

Sonic, who had stopped laughing long enough to notice that Silver was levitating various kitchen-related objects using his psychokinesis, quickly said, "Hey Silver, man, it was just a joke, right Knux?"

Knuckles, picking up from Sonic's tone that something was amiss, agreed. "Yeah, Silver. I totally knew it was you."

"See? So just put down the po-" Sonic cut himself off, deciding this wasn't the best choice of words. "Put down the pan and chill out dude."

Tails, however, felt that Sonic first choice of words was the better of the two. "Silver, put down the pot!" He said as he continued to roll on the floor laughing.

Silver let the pots and pans he was levitating drop to the floor. "OK, I guess I was overreacting a little." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

Tails got off of the floor, still having some fits of laughter. "Dude, that was funny, because you were lifting a pot and-"

Silver cut him off, pinching his nose in annoyance. "I get it Tails."

"Come on dude," Sonic said, sticking up for his brother, "you gotta admit you walked right into that one."

"I guess so."

"So we're good?"

"Yeah." At this point, a phone rang. Silver quickly said, "Don't worry, I'll get it," as he levitated the phone towards them and answered it. "Hello? Oh, hi Shadow...What? Shadow, you can do that yourself. Shadow, I'm not going to order pizza for you...I'm not going to make you a pizza either!" Silver hung up.

Silver glared at a chortling Knuckles. "What? It was funny."

Changing the subject, Tails asked, "So Silver, how did you get here?"

Smirking, Silver replied, "I'm glad you asked. Take a look at this."

Silver held out the gem he was holding. Knuckles stared at it. "What is it? It's seems so similar to the Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic took a closer look. "That's a Time Stone, isn't it?"

Silver looked at Sonic, shocked. "How did you know?"

"I used them once to stop Eggman, way back when."

Tails looked at Sonic, confused. "Wait, when was that?" He asked.

"On Little Planet. You had the flu that week, remember?"

"Oh, yeah..."

"Anyway, Knux, Tails and I were about to get some grub. Wanna come with?"

"I don't have any money," Silver replied.

"No problem, it'll be my treat. Just try and keep up!"

(Time Break)

"Wow, all the shops here are pretty decorated for the holidays," Silver commented, looking back and forth as he walked.

"Well, with Christmas so soon, it's no surprise really." Sonic said.

Looking around, Knuckles asked, "Where are we going anyway?"

"Just a restaurant Tails and I go to every so often. It should be near here..."

Silver pointed to a building across the street. "Is it that diner over there?"

"Huh? Where?" Sonic followed Silver's finger with his eyes. "Ugh, not THAT place. Amy keeps trying to get me to take her there."

"Sounds rough," Knuckles commented.

"You have no idea...Ah! Here's the place." Sonic said, stopping.

"...El Gran Burrito?" Silver asked, looking warily at the restaurant.

"Yep," Tails confirmed, "this place has some of the best burritos you'll ever taste."

Sonic pushed the door open and said, 'Cmon guys, let's go!"

The restaurant was rather simple, yet had a nice feel to it. Tails waved to the owner, a mouse wearing a sombrero, and said, "Hey Gonzales! Long time no see."

The mouse smiled at the group entering and said, "Well, if it isn't my favorite customers, Sonic and Tails! Along with two friends I see. What can I get for you?"

"Tails and I will have the usual," Sonic ordered casually.

After some consideration, Knuckles said, "I'll have the enchiladas."

Silver looked at the menu. "I don't know what any of this is saying."

Sonic looked at Silver, grinning. 'What, don't understand Spanish?"

"Do you?"

"Well...no. But I can at least order. How about I order for you?"

"I guess that'll be fine."

"Great." Turning to face Gonzales, Sonic said, "He'll have 'El Diablo Burrito'"

The mouse snickered. "And to drink?"

"A cola of course."

"Of course, how silly of me." He pushed some buttons on the register. "That'll be 25 rings."

The group of four sat at a table after Sonic payed and they received their food. "No drink for you, Knux?" Sonic asked.

"I'm not thirsty," Knuckles replied flatly.

"You forgot to order a drink, didn't you?"

"...I'm not thirsty."

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles started to eat their food as Silver looked at his burrito. "What's in this?" The silver hedgehog asked.

"Meat, lettuce, y'know, that kind of stuff," Tails answered.

Silver took a small, hesitant bite. "Hmm, this isn't that bad." He took a larger bite. "THAT'S HOT!" He reached for his drink, hoping it would cool his mouth off. When this didn't have the desired effect, Silver started to panic. His panicing was rather humorous to the other four in the room. "Sonic, you're a douche!" He managed to say through the spices in his mouth.

Before a minute had passed, Gonzales walked to the table holding a slice of bread, which he handed to Silver. "Eat this-it'll help with your spice problem."

Eating it, Silver started to feel better. "Thank you." He then turned to glare at Sonic.

"How about I give you a less spicy burrito on the house? That was the most amusing thing I've seen all month!"

Sonic grinned. "See Silver? It may have been tough, but I got it to pay off for you in the end, right?"

Silver used his psychokinesis to push Sonic into a wall.

As the 4 finished their meal without any further complications, they left, bidding farewell to Gonzales as they did. As they walked out the door, Knuckles said, "I've got to do something. I'll see you guys later."

"Knuckles? What are you doing?" Tails asked.

"You'll see. Later."

* * *

"All finished now. Perfect!"

Amy sighed contently as she smelled her freshly baked apple pie. "Now to let you cool off," she said to herself as she placed beside a pumpkin pie she had baked earlier that day. "That's all the baking for today. Now I can just relax."

Amy grabbed her tea kettle and started to fill it up with water. As the kettle filled, Amy's mind started to wander. The trip she took with Blaze to the teahouse earlier was fun, albeit a little awkward when the girl working there thought that they were dating. Remembering the tea they drank, Amy couldn't help but smile. It was excellently brewed tea. The sound of her kettle overflowing knocked her out of her thoughts. Quickly turning the water off, she placed the kettle on the stove. Turning on the stove, her thoughts started to drift as she waited for the water to boil. Wouldn't it be amazing if Sonic took her to that teahouse? She sighed dreamily at the thought, it would be so romantic. She then remembered that Sonic hates tea, causing her to frown slightly. Sonic actually didn't like a lot of the little things she did, like drinking tea or reading romance novels. Amy didn't mind though-that's what she had friends like Blaze for. Amy giggled to herself, remembering how flustered the usually composed girl had become when it was suggested that they were dating. This time, the sound of the kettle whistling knocked her out of her thoughts. She was a little distracted tonight, it seemed. She poured the boiling water into a cup and placed a teabag into the water. She was about to go and grab one of her romance novels from her room when she heard loud knocks at her door. "Just a second!" She called.

As she opened the door, she found a nervous looking Knuckles, who asked, "Amy, can you, uh, help me with something?"

"What do you need help with? And...why are you carrying a dead boar on your back?"

Knuckles shifted the dead boar on his back. "It's...kind of a long story. Can I come in?"

"Not while you're carrying that corpse."

"But 'that corpse' is the reason I need your help! You're good with cooking, right?"

Amy sighed. Sometimes, she really hated her good nature. "I'd say I'm not bad, but I've never cooked a dead boar."

"It can't be that hard."

"Fine, fine. Just don't make a mess."

"Thank you." Knuckles walked into her house and asked, "Where should I put this?"

"On the counter over there," she said, pointing to the kitchen. "I need to grab my apron-this'll probably get messy." Knuckles nodded at her.

Amy grabbed her plain white apron and put it on. This wouldn't be too bad, she could look up how to do this on the internet, it would be easy. Then Knuckles shouted, "OH SWEET CHAOS IT'S STILL ALIVE!"

Amy ran back to the kitchen, grabbed one of her cooking knives and slashed the writhing boar, killing it for good. She glared at Knuckles. "It...um...It surprised me."

Amy sighed. Pulling up a guide for cooking a dead boar on the internet, Amy started following the steps, with Knuckles helping her. "So what made you decide attempting to kill a boar was a good idea?"

"Sonic and Tails told me about Christmas."

"You didn't already know?"

"Shut up! There aren't any other people on Angel Island, of course I didn't know."

"Makes sense."

"Since I didn't know what else to give everyone, I decided to give everyone food."

"And the boar?"

"I tried hunting, and this was one of the biggest ones."

"That makes enough sense-put those in a bag and throw it away."

Knuckles grimaced. "I'm kind of glad I usually stuck with fruit on Angel Island."

"I think I'll be sticking to prepared meat from now on."

"I didn't think this would be this much trouble."

Amy smirked at the echidna. "It would help if you could actually hunt properly."

"Shut up!"

Looking at the guide she was following, Amy saw that the rest was rather simple. "I think I can handle the rest from here, you can leave now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine, don't worry. Just take the carcass out with you."

Knuckles remained silent, but grabbed the parts that weren't going to be cooked. "Thank you for doing this."

"It's not-OK, it is a bit of trouble, but I don't mind."

"Yeah. I'll see you later."

"Good bye."

As Knuckles left her house, Amy sighed and grabbed her tea. It was cold, but she really didn't care at this point. "Now to finish cooking this..." Looking at her apron, she added, "And these bloodstains are going to be a nightmare to get off."

* * *

Blaze filled her tea kettle with water. She was ready to go to bed, and wanted a cup of tea before doing so. Memories of her and Amy's time at the teahouse were still fresh in her mind. Blaze smiled at the memories of earlier in the day-she had fun there, and she was sure Amy did too. Her kettle filled, Blaze was about to boil the water when she was interrupted by a knock on her door. "Who could it be at this hour?" She asked herself aloud.

She opened the door to see Sonic, carrying a bag and tapping his foot impatiently. "Hey Blaze!" He said as she opened the door. "Mind if I stay for the night? I don't want to wake up Tails."

"If you don't mind sleeping on the couch."

"That'll be fine...can I borrow some wrapping paper too?"

Blaze sighed. "Yes, I have some left over. Cutting it a little close, aren't you?"

"Hey, what's done is done. It's probably better I wrap it here anyway-it's Tails' gift."

"Just sit in the living room. I'll grab the wrapping paper."

Blaze left to grab the wrapping paper, and gave it to Sonic. While she was there, she asked, "Would you like something to drink?"

"You have any soda?"

"Sorry, no. It's a little late for coffee, but you can have tea or hot chocolate."

"I'll take the hot chocolate then."

"OK."

Blaze returned to the kitchen. Grabbing the kettle, she started to focus her powers over fire, letting the water inside the kettle boil. Pouring two cups, she placed a teabag into one and made hot chocolate out of the other. When Blaze returned to the living room, she saw Sonic sitting on the couch with a sloppily wrapped gift in front of him. She held out the hot chocolate. Sonic took it. "Thanks," he said, taking a sip of it.

Blaze went back to the kitchen for her tea. Throwing the teabag away, she returned to the living room and sat next to Sonic. The two drank their beverages in silence until Blaze asked, "Um...can we talk?"

"About what?"

"Amy."

Sonic looked away from Blaze. "What about her?" His voice sounded a little more cautious.

"She talks about you a lot."

"I'm sure."

A pause. "How do you feel about her?"

"She's annoying, and a little scary."

Blaze blinked, surprised at the answer. "...Is that all?"

"Well..." Sonic sighed. "She's annoying with her fangirlish attitude, and constant following me around. She's scary when she loses her temper. But, I suppose...when push comes to shove, she's a good friend."

Blaze focused on her tea. Sonic fidgeted uncomfortably. "That's all, Sonic. Thanks."

"So you aren't going to set me on fire?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Oh, no reason."

The two sat in silence for another moment. Blaze broke the silence by asking, "By the way, if you don't mind me asking...I've noticed Tails eats his chili dogs with mustard on them. How does he do that?"

* * *

AN-Finished. Cutting it close here, eh? And it's not short as hell this time.

Babylon Rogues made a cameo, it was fun to write that scene. Silver shows up and is promptly made into the butt of all jokes. Insights into Amy's head. Sonic and Blaze have a chat about Amy, though I feel that it kind of went a little...bland, for lack of a better word. I dunno. Don't think I have anything else to really go over before the finale. Which I'll try and post tomorrow. Go me.

The spelling and grammar will probably be up and down and all around for this chapter. Because Macs suck and break spell/grammar check for no reason. I noticed a lot of stupid fuck ups in the writing as I read through it too. There's probably some I missed.

Leave a review if you'd like. The normal stuff I usually say still applies.

I don't think I have anything else to say for now.


	5. Chapter 5

**Holiday Highway**

Chapter 5

AN-I don't own anything. An early apology-Since there will be a lot of characters in the same location, some will probably end up disappearing and reappearing somewhat randomly. I'm not good at keeping track of so many characters at once...Especially Cheese. Cheese always disappears. ALWAYS.

Warning-There will be instance(s) where two girls kiss each other. Fucking Mistletoe, never works how you want it to.

* * *

"You want strawberries, right?"

"Yes please."

Shadow carefully cut a couple of strawberries, and placed them in a bowl of (healthy) cereal. Pouring some milk into it, he gave the bowl to Cream. "There you go."

"Thank you, Shadow." Cream picked one of the strawberry slices out of her cereal and fed it to Cheese before she started eating her cereal.

Shadow poured another bowl of the same cereal for himself. He could still clearly recall Rouge chewing him out for his poor dietary habits. He shuddered a little at the memory-it was something he didn't want to happen again any time soon. As he sat down with Cream to eat his cereal, someone knocked at the door. Shadow sighed, getting up from his chair. "I'll go get it, you keep eating."

Shadow walked to the door to his house and opened it. He blinked, wondering why Rouge and Omega were standing in the doorway holding various dishes and boxes."Hey there Shadow," Rouge said, "mind carrying these to the kitchen? Thanks."

Shadow grabbed the stuff Rouge handed to him, carrying them to the kitchen. "What are you two doing here?" He asked.

Rouge looked at him disbelievingly. "Don't tell me you forgot."

"Forgot what?"

Rouge sighed. "Everyone's coming here to celebrate Christmas?"

Shadow blinked. He supposed that was why he set up a tree in his house. "They are?"

Rouge rubbed her forehead. "I'm really glad I half expected this. Yes Shadow, everyone-"

"Who's everyone?"

"You know, Sonic, Tails, Amy, those people."

Shadow blinked again. Cream walked into the room and said, "Sorry Shadow...I thought you knew about it."

"I think I'm going to go lie down," Shadow said, still in a state of shock.

"Do you want me to bring you your cereal?"

"Yes, thank you."

Shadow walked to the nearest couch and proceeded to lay down on it. Cream followed him carrying his cereal. When Cream returned, she said, "I'm so sorry, Rouge. I thought he knew about it. This is all my fault..."

Rouge gently patted the rabbits head. "It's no one's fault but Shadow's, dear. You mind helping me with cooking?"

"No, I won't mind at all."

"Good," Rouge turned to her robotic companion. "Omega, would you mind laying those gifts over by the tree."

"It will not be a problem," Omega responded, doing as Rouge asked him.

"Good, good. Now, let's get these cooking, shall we?"

"Okay Rouge!" Cream said, glad to help out.

Seeing that all of her dishes were now cooking, Rouge smiled. "Now, it's time for one of the most important parts of decorating."

"What would that be?" Cream asked, curiosity filling her eyes.

Rouge held up a plant. "This."

"That's a..." Cream paused. "What is that?"

"It's mistletoe. You see, when two people stand under it together..." To emphasize her speech, Rouge stepped closer to Cream and held the plant above them. "...they have to kiss each other." Finishing her example, Rouge chastely kissed Cream's lips. "Got it?"

Cream nodded. "I get it now. Did Amy ask you to bring it?"

Rouge laughed. "No, sometimes I just love the sound of drama in my life." Flapping her wings, Rouge lifted herself off the ground to hang up the mistletoe, placing it above a door that was out of the way yet still noticeable.

As Rouge landed back on the floor, Cream kept looking at the mistletoe. "Who are you trying to kiss?"

Rouge playfully nudged the younger girl. "You, of course."

Cream giggled at the bat's response. "I'm glad you got one thing you wanted, then." Her ears twitched. Turning around, she called out, "Cheese! Don't eat that!"

Cheese let out an embarrassed cry, sheepishly looking away from a baguette on the counter. "Good thing you heard him going for it."

"Yeah." Cream agreed. She picked up Cheese. "If you're hungry, we'll just get you some of your square fruits, alright?" Cheese responded with an excited cry and clapping.

Watching Cream feed her chao, Rouge asked her, "Did you and Shadow get your Christmas shopping done?"

"Yes. I guess Shadow just thought we were going to be celebrating somewhere else."

"I guess so." Rouge watched Cream and Cheese again.

Cream noticed this. "Is something wrong, Rouge?"

"You got some of my makeup on your face." Grabbing a napkin, she added, "Don't worry, I'll wipe it off. Shadow would throw a fit if he saw you like this."

Cream giggled and let Rouge wipe her face. "You should probably fix your makeup, then."

"I probably should. It shouldn't take too long, so don't worry about anything burning."

"OK."

Cream still watched the food anyway-it's not as if she had anything better to do (other than keep Cheese away from the baguette). She was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Someone's early," she commented to herself. "It also sounds like they're kicking the door?"

Cream opened the door to see Blaze, hands full with various bags and boxes. "Sorry," the cat said, "my hands are a little full."

"That's a lot of stuff Miss Blaze! Can I take some of it for you?"

"I'd be glad if you could," Blaze responded, handing some bags to Cream.

"Why do you have so much stuff? This seems like a lot more than what Rouge brought earlier."

"Well, I'm also carrying Amy's gifts. I'm helping her out."

"That's nice of you. You can leave the gifts here." Cream gently placed down the bags she was carrying-she didn't want to chance breaking anything fragile.

Blaze followed suit. "Thanks. Well, I gotta go back and help Amy carry food. See you later!"

"Later, Miss Blaze!" Cream said as Blaze dashed out the door, small sparks trailing her.

Rouge walked up to Cream, makeup fixed. "So Blaze is helping Amy out?"

Cream closed the door. "Yeah."

"Well, Amy is only supposed to be cooking dessert. I hope she doesn't bring too much..."

"I'm sure it'll work fine. How are Shadow and Mr. Omega doing?"

"I don't think Omega appreciates it when you call him mister...but they're doing fine, just watching TV."

(Time break)

"So Rouge, what are you cooking?" Cream asked, curious.

"Just some bisque and pot au feu. My mother used to make these when I was younger."

"Are they good?"

"I like them." Rouge's ears twitched. "I think Blaze and Amy are about to knock."

A few seconds after Rouge said that, there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it." Cream opened the door to reveal Blaze and Amy carrying food. "Hi there Amy, Miss Blaze. Need any help?"

"We should be good, thanks Cream," Amy said, carrying a large plate of meat.

Amy walked into the kitchen, Blaze trailing behind her carrying two set the pies on a counter and said, "I'll go watch TV or something, I'll probably burn something if I stay here..."

Amy set down the food she was carrying beside the pies. "Hey Rouge, where's Shadow?"

"He's watching TV. What did you bring all that for? I thought you were just going to make dessert."

"This is merry Christmas from Knuckles. I need to heat this up, where's the oven?"

"It's over there. From Knuckles? Then why do you have it?"

"Thanks. He doesn't know how to cook," as an afterthought, she added, "or hunt for that matter."

"He tried hunting? What'd he get?"

Amy tapped some buttons on the oven. "He got a boar, then he dragged it to my house and asked me to cook it for him."

"Sounds like fun."

"Tell me about it. Do you have any coffee? I didn't get enough sleep last night."

Cream walked into the room. "I'll make some for you, Amy."

Amy put the boar meat into the oven. "Thanks Cream."

Rouge looked away from her dishes for a moment. "Do you need to refrigerate your pies or something?"

Amy thought about it. "The apple pie can probably stay out, but I should probably refrigerate the pumpkin pie. Thanks." After saying this, she yawned.

Amy left to put her pie in the refrigerator. Cream was about to ask Rouge if she needed any help when a loud squeal interrupted their thoughts. Cream rubbed her ears and commented, "Sounds like Amy found the mistletoe."

Listening to the various words Amy was saying to herself, Rouge said, "Sure seems like it. Sounds like Sonic is going to have to stay on edge tonight."

Amy ran by the two girls, looking much more awake. "Your coffee is about to be ready, Amy."

"Coffee?" Amy paused for a moment, distracted from her Sonic-centered fantasies. "Oh yeah. Thanks Cream."

Amy grabbed her coffee and started to drink it after adding some sugar.

(Time Break)

Cream was helping Rouge cook when the bat started to giggle softly. Cream asked her, "What is it, Rouge?"

Rouge responded by tapping her ear. Cream listened closely, and picked up the sounds of people talking outside. "You were scared, weren't you Knux?" This voice was Sonic's.

Knuckles' voice replied, "You'd be scared too. Have you ever seen Amy in a bloody apron holding a bloodstained knife?"

Tails' voice commented, "That sounds scary even without a picture."

An unknown voice added in his two cents. "She can't be that bad, can she?"

Knuckles' voice again. "You have NO idea."

Giggling, Cream said to Rouge, "Mr. Knuckles can be funny sometimes, can't he?"

"I guess he can," Rouge replied.

Amy overheard the two girls. "Knuckles? Does that mean...Sonic is here?" She started to make a mad dash to the door when the timer on the oven went off. "Oh wait, gotta make sure the food doesn't burn..."

Cream started to walk to the door as Rouge whispered, "She can be crazy sometimes..."

Cream whispered back, "But that makes her fun to be with."

"I suppose."

Cream waited for someone to knock and then opened the door. Sonic stood in the doorway. "Hey there," he said, "we brought chili dogs!"

Rouge slapped her forehead. Behind Sonic was Tails, carrying chili, Knuckles, carrying buns, and Silver, who was using psychokinesis to levitate several boxes. Sonic, holding a bag of hot dogs, said, "Just give us a little time to prepare these chili dogs, then we can eat, OK?"

Rouge was about to respond when Amy came running past, having taken the food out of the oven. "SONIC!" she cried.

"Oh crap!" Sonic said on instinct, slipping between Cream and Rouge and escaping.

"You can run, but you can't hide, Sonic! I'll get you tonight, I swear!"

Rouge was eager to keep things calm. "Amy, how about you go set the table?" she suggested. "Cream, go tell everyone else we're about to start eating."

Cream nodded and ran off to the room everyone else was in. Amy gave a halfhearted nod and went to set the table. Silver commented, "You guys were right. I'm terrified."

Everyone set out to doing what they were told to, and they started eating in short order. Once everyone had filled their plates with helpings of everything (though Sonic and Tails favored chili dogs), they all sat at the table together. Sonic grabbed a chili dog from his plate. "So Shadow," he said, "you got anything to say now that we're all here?"

Shadow glared at Sonic. "Thank you all for coming here," he said flatly.

Sonic feeling chatty as ever, said, "So, uh, what's this," as he pointed at the bisque.

Rouge answered, "It's bisque. It's kind of similar to cream stew, I made it with shellfish-"

Sonic cut her off. "Bleh, fish." He took a bite out of one of his chili dogs.

Rouge rolled her eyes. Cream, who had been eating her bisque, said, "It's okay Rouge. I think it's really good."

"Me too." Amy added. "Did you really make it with shellfish? I didn't think they'd taste like this."

"It's all in how you prepare it." Rouge answered.

"This meat is pretty good too," Silver said as he ate the boar meat. "Who got this?"

"Well..." Knuckles started to say pridefully.

"Knuckles failed to kill a boar and made me do everything," Amy said.

"Shut up!"

"Now now, don't be too hard on him, Amy," Rouge said, smirking. "He had to stay in your presence when you looked like you just murdered someone. That's tough work, isn't it?"

"Shut up!"

"Oh, just shut up and eat your food, Knuckles." Sonic said dryly.

"So, Knuckles." Amy said, one of her eyes twitching. "What were you saying about me...?"

Sensing a rise of tension, Tails tried to change the subject. "So! How about this beef stew? It's pretty good."

"That's not beef stew, Tails." Cream corrected. "It's..." A pause as Cream tried to remember the name. "Pot au foo."

"Pot au feu." Rouge corrected her pronunciation.

"Pot au feu." She was still saying it wrong, but it was closer.

"Close enough."

Shadow, who had been silent the whole time, commented, "Do you all really need to talk so much while you eat?"

"It'd be boring if we were all silent like you Shadow." Sonic retorted.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever. I've finished."

"There's still dessert," Amy reminded him.

"I'll have dessert when everyone else does."

The rest of the meal continued in relative silence, topics of conversation seemingly worn out. With the main course done with, it was time for dessert. "All right, it's time for dessert!" Amy said energetically. "I'll go grab the pies."

She left to do so. Tails rubbed his stomach and said, "I don't think I can eat another bite."

"Then don't, bro. I'm sure there'll be some leftovers."

"I guess so," Tails said, standing up.

Amy walked back in the room carrying her pies. "All right, there's an apple and a pumpkin pie." She noticed that Tails was leaving the room. "Tails, what's wrong?"

"I ate too much. I think I'll lie down for a bit."

Sonic shouted to him, "Don't fall asleep bro! You'll get funky dreams!"

Shadow and Rouge took a quick glance at Cream. She was helping herself to a slice of pie, unaffected by Sonic's words. The let out silent sighs of relief and helped themselves to dessert. Blaze was the first one to comment. "These pies are really good, Amy!"

Amy smiled. "You think so? That's great." She turned to face Sonic. "So, what do you think about them, Sonic?"

Sonic grimaced. He swallowed his food slowly, trying to buy himself time to think of an answer. "It's...kinda good."

"Kinda good? Oh Sonic, you shouldn't ha-gack!" Blaze and Cream grabbed the collar of Amy's dress before she could attempt to leap across the table to hug Sonic.

"Blaze was right, Amy. You did a good job with these pies," Cream said, trying to get her friend's mind off of Sonic.

"Thanks Cream. I'm happy you're enjoying it."

By the time all of this chatter had finished, they had already eaten enough dessert to fulfill their hunger. As everyone started to move out of the dining room and into the living room, where the gift exchange would take place, Shadow caught their attention and said, "There is going to be a brief delay for the gifts. Because I need to use the bathroom."

As Shadow left to do his business. Sonic shouted out, "Dang it! I need to use it too!"

Rouge said, "There's another bathroom over there," pointing at the location.

Sonic's eyes followed where Rouge was pointing and grimaced. It passed through the mistletoe door. Wanting to avoid Amy, Sonic sprinted towards the bathroom. Shadow could hear him sprint, as he yelled, "Don't break anything!"

Amy promptly started standing under the mistletoe by herself, waiting for Sonic to pass through again. Sonic eventually finished, and promptly stood just outside the bathroom, refusing to go under the mistletoe with Amy. Rouge broke the silence between them. "You know Amy, anyone can go under the mistletoe with you when you're standing under it alone."

Amy stepped out from under the mistletoe, waiting for Sonic to sprint by so she could catch him. Sonic watched Amy's feet carefully, waiting for her to move far enough away from the mistletoe. "I'm not sure what's going on," Knuckles said to Silver, "but I think they're taking it way too seriously."

"No kidding," Silver said in agreement.

Amy took another step away from the mistletoe and Sonic saw his chance. He sprinted as fast as he could past Amy, his speed causing a gust of wind throughout the house. "Yeah, way too seriously," Knuckles commented as he shielded his eyes from the wind.

Amy had taken the brunt of the gust from Sonic's sprint. Being in mid step when Sonic sprinted by, she lost her balance and began to fall. She closed her eyes, waiting for impact with the floor, when she was caught by someone. "Sonic?" She said as she opened her eyes.

"Sorry, it's just me," Blaze said, being the one who had caught Amy.

Being helped by Blaze to stand upright again, Amy said, "Thanks for catching me Blaze...And sorry about thinking you were Sonic."

Blaze shook her head. "It's no problem. We're friends, right?"

Amy smiled and nodded. They were about to walk back, when a snickering reminded them of where they were. They looked up-they were standing together under the mistletoe. The two girls started to blush immediately. "Well, might as well get this over with..." Amy gave Blaze a quick peck on her cheek.

"Aren't you two supposed to kiss each other on the lips?" Cream asked. "Because I remember being told that.

Amy started to open her mouth to say something to Cream, when Rouge said, "Yeah, I remember Vanilla saying that."

Amy shut her mouth. She didn't want to prove Cream's mother wrong in front of her. She looked at Blaze. The other girl was still blushing. "Well, let's get this out of the way for real, then?"

Blaze nodded. As the two leaned into each other, Rouge whispered to Cream, "Thanks, I owe you one."

Cream whispered back, "No you don't. Merry Christmas."

When Blaze and Amy finished their kiss Rouge commented, "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

The two girls ignored her, still blushing slightly. "C'mon Rouge, we have presents to open!" Cream said.

"Yep, let's go."

Everyone gathered in Shadow's living room and exchanged gifts. Sonic was sitting next to Tails on a couch, "Took you guys long enough! What took so long?"

Knuckles and Silver sat down on the couch with him. "Dude," Knuckles said, "Blaze and Amy kissed."

"What?!"

"It happened, I saw it too," Silver said, confirming Knuckles' previous statement.

"Well, hopefully that'll keep Amy away from my personal space for a while..."

"Always looking on the bright side, aren't you bro?" Tails said.

"You know it, bro." As the rest of the group walked into the room, Sonic said, "All right, let's open some presents! How about our joyful host opens one first?" Shadow grunted. "That sounds like a yes! How about this one...To Shadow, from Cream and Rouge? Huh. Here you go." Sonic handed the gift to Shadow.

Shadow opened the gift. "This is...a necklace? This is... Maria's..."

"A necklace? Wouldn't think to get Shadow one of those..."

Shadow pulled Cream and Rouge into a hug. "Thank you..."

Rouge tried to push him off. "Don't get all sappy now! It was all Cream's idea, anyway."

Cream, being modest, said, "It was too expensive for me, so Rouge helped me out."

Shadow looked at the necklace, a gemstone shaped like a Lily of the Valley. "Maria...I'll show you this world through this stone." Putting the necklace on, Shadow looked at Sonic and asked, "Who's next?"

Sonic got over the shock of Shadow's reaction and grabbed a random gift. "This is...Hey! This is my gift for my little bro!" Sonic handed the gift to Tails.

"Thanks Sonic," Tails said as he grabbed the gift. Opening it up, his face lit up. "Hey, this is the Flux Capacitor I've needed! And this tool set...Wow! How'd you know to get this set?"

"I'll be honest, I got a little help from Wave."

"Well, I'm glad you did. I'll be able to tinker much better with these tools. Thanks bro."

"No problem, bro." Sonic reached for another gift. "OK, to Knuckles, from Rouge. Here you go Knux."

Knuckles opened it. "A scarf?" He asked, looking at it.

"I tried flying up to Angel Island recently," Rouge explained, "and I nearly froze my wings! I'd imagine you'd need something to stay up there for so long."

"It's warmer on the inland."

"If you don't want it, just give it back."

"No, I like it. It's still pretty cold." Knuckles put the scarf around his neck. "Looks good, right?"

"In your dreams."

Knuckles rolled his eyes. Sonic grabbed another present. "To Amy, from Tails and I!"

He tossed the present at Amy, who caught it and opened it. "A book?" She asked.

"Yeah, the girl at the bookstore said it was really good. It's some kind of princess story, I think," Tails responded.

Looking at the book, Amy said, "It looks pretty good. Thanks you two."

Sonic let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Amy didn't attempt to hug him. He grabbed another gift. "To Rouge, from Blaze. Here."

Sonic handed the gift to Rouge, who opened it. "This is...a nice gem. But it's not a real Sol Emerald, is it?"

"Sorry, no," Blaze responded. She reached into her pocket, and threw something at Rouge. "Give that back in a week."

Rouge caught what Blaze threw. "This shine, how it's cut, the dazzling brilliance..." Rouge's face lit up. "A real Sol Emerald. Oh, my precious~"

"You'll have to give it back, you know."

"Let me have my time with my precious."

"Okay, next is...To Cream, from Shadow. This is gonna be good." Sonic gave the gift to Cream.

Cream opened it. "A beginner's guide to Botany?" She started flipping through the pages.

"Isn't that a little advanced for her?" Rouge asked.

"She's intelligent. She'll manage."

"Shadow, did you know that the Lily of the Valley is poisonous?" Cream said, reading from the book.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's also-"

"Save the botany lesson for later guys," Sonic said, "next is...To Me! From Tails!"

Sonic opened his own gift. "Dude! This is awesome!"

"What is it, a lifetime supply of chili dogs?" Knuckles asked.

"Knowing Sonic and Tails, a lifetime supply wouldn't last a lifetime," Silver commented.

"Look at these shoes!" Sonic said, holding up the new pair. "Do you know how little friction these guys get? And how much traction they have! I'm going to become even faster!"

"Glad you like it, bro," Tails said.

"Like it? This. Is. AWESOME!" Sonic coughed to compose himself. "Anyway, next. To Blaze, from Amy."

Blaze took the gift. "This is...a teacup? Hey, I remember that picture on it!"

Amy smiled. "That was from when we were stuck in that cafe, remember?"

"Yeah..." Blaze sighed, remembering the time. "Thanks Amy. This is great."

Amy blushed a little. "It's no problem."

Sonic grabbed another gift, a big one. "This one is...To Omega, from Tails and I!"

A silence settled on the room. Omega, hearing his name, turned to face everyone. He was just standing in the back, hiding in the shadows. He raised his arms to the box. Rouge said, "Omega, don't try to open it with your flamethrowers."

Omega lowered his arms with a sense of sadness. He opened the box. "Ammunition. Scanners show it is of above average quality. Dr. Eggman will die."

"Not anytime soon-we have recon for our next mission."

"Affirmative," Omega said, a sense of disappointment seeping into his voice.

Silver sat up in his seat. "OK, now a gift for me, right?"

Sonic looked away. "Sorry Silver, we didn't think you were coming."

"WHAT!?"

"Just kidding! Here you go, this is from Shadow and Cream."

"Thanks!" Silver opened it. "Hey, it's a pizza in the shape of my head! With anchovies!"

Shadow added, "We didn't have a picture of you, so we had to use a picture of a certain plant for reference."

"You just had to make this backhanded somehow, didn't you? Anyway, help me eat this, I can't do it all by myself."

"Sorry Silver," Sonic said, "but the anchovies on your pizza are kind of like the mustard on Tails' chili dogs-you're the only one who likes it."

Tails sighed loudly.

The group opened more presents, having fun all the while. As it got later, people started to leave, with Silver time traveling back to the future, until only Shadow and Cream were left. "Today was fun, wasn't it Shadow?"

"I suppose."

Cream smiled. "I'll get to see mom tomorrow."

"That'll be good."

"...But I'll miss you, Shadow. I had fun here."

"...Thanks Cream. But it's late, you should get to bed."

As if to prove Shadow's point, Cream yawned. "OK, good night, Shadow!"

"Good night, Cream."

* * *

AN-Finished. Feeling like a boss. I'll upload the epilogue on Christmas Day...well, Christmas Day where I live, anyway. Probably at like 1 in the morning too. Like a boss.

One grammar error- 'You should capitalize the first word of a sentence' DERP GLAD I FIXED THAT ONE. Thought that was funny, so I threw it in this AN.

Like I said at the beginning, I lose track of characters in groups. Like Cheese. It doesn't help that Cheese can't actually talk in understandable speech.

How they did things is kind of based on what I remember my family doing for Christmas (It's been a year, my memory is bad).

The food Rouge cooks are french dishes. I had to look up some french dishes so I didn't have to be incredibly unspecific. AND HOLY SHIT SO MUCH FOOD PARTS WHY ARE THEY COOKING SO MUCH

The meal was tough, because I'm Italian, and Italian family gatherings end up becoming 'Everyone trying to talk over everyone else'. I felt that probably wouldn't be the best for this story.

Blaze and Amy kiss, blah blah blah. Amy shouldn't have tried to use the mistletoe to her advantage.

Didn't do a whole lot with the gifts because I am a horrible gift giver. Just like Sonic and Tails in chapter 2. Speaking of which, Knuckles and Silver made a lot of (relatively) witty comments, instead of Sonic and Tails. Funny how these things turn out. I think Rouge also came off as a huge tsundere with some of the gifts. (Looking at you, Knuckles' gift)

Don't think there's anything else to say, but the story is practically finished. CHALLENGE COMPLETED. (Well, not now, but it will be when you read this)

Happy Holidays! Hopefully you'll be able to spend some time with your family/people important to you. If they suck, well, there's a reason why Eggnog is an alcoholic beverage. (Since I forgot to mention this when Rouge and Blaze were underage drinking, only drink alcohol if you're of age. Sonic Sez!)

Leave a review if you'd like.


	6. Epilogue

**Holiday Highway**

Epilogue

AN-I don't own anything.

* * *

Knuckles scratched his head. "So, why are we up this early?"

Tails grinned. "Trust me, this will be the best thing ever."

Sonic yawned. "Just get on with it, bro."

"Behold!" Tails announced, moving aside to reveal a toaster.

"It's just a toaster, Tails," Knuckles said, not amused.

"Not just any toaster! I've tinkered with this one. If my calculations are right, we'll be able to toast things at more than twice the speed of regular toasters!"

"...And? We don't even use the toaster at all in the first place," Sonic said while rubbing some sleep out of his eyes.

"Just think of it this way-if I can get this toaster to toast at twice the speed, I can make other things go faster as well! Like making chili dogs."

The mention of chili dogs woke Sonic up. "Make chili dogs faster? That sounds awesome, bro."

Sonic looked at the toaster eagerly-he was excited at the prospect of speeding up one of the slowest parts of his day. Knuckles still looked at the toaster with skepticism. Tails inserted a slice of bread into the toaster. "And now, for the first trial!"

"Wait, you've never test-" Sonic tried to say as Tails turned on the toaster. As it turned on, the toaster promptly exploded, spreading ash and soot throughout the kitchen.

Coughing, Tails found and held up the bread he had put in the toaster before. "Look! It's toasted!"

Wiping ashes off of his scarf, Knuckles looked at the toast, which had indeed been toasted to perfection. Knuckles gave an impressed whistle as Sonic said, "It's toasted, but I think it could use a little less explosions."

"It's just a minor setback."

"You destroyed the toaster."

"It's not like we ever use it."

"Touché."

"Well, no matter. These new tools are awesome, Sonic! I think I can build anything now!"

Knuckles commented, "Be sure not to build any more exploding toasters, though."

"Sounds like a plan," Sonic said, grinning. "Who's up for some chili dogs? You can even put mustard on yours, Tails!"

"Very funny," the fox said, not amused at all.

"Oh yeah, can you guys get me back to Angel Island? I kind of got here by gliding."

Sonic sighed. "After breakfast Knux. After breakfast."

* * *

"Thanks for bringing me home, Shadow."

"It was nothing."

Cheese, who had been hiding from the cold in Cream's coat, made his presence known with a thankful cry. Cream looked at Shadow. "I had fun at your house, Shadow. But I'm really glad to be home again, and able to see my mom."

"I'm sure you are."

"You sure you don't want to come in?"

"No, I have a mission tomorrow, so I want to...take a nap, or something."

"Well, I'm sure mom won't mind if you come by. Thanks for everything you've done for me!"

"Thanks for everything you've done for me, too. It was nice spending time with you. Later."

"Later."

After watching Shadow ride off in his motorcycle, Cream ran to her house. As she approached the door, it opened to reveal her mother. "Hello Cream. I'm glad to see you're safe."

"Hi mom!" Cream said as she hugged her mother. "I missed you."

Vanilla hugged her daughter back. "I missed you too."

As the mother and daughter walked into the house, Cream opened her coat to let Cheese fly out. Hanging up her winter wear, she asked, "Where'd you go, mom?"

Vanilla walked into the kitchen. "I went to this resort by Seaside Hill. Rouge got me a reservation there, and, well..."

"You wanted a break?"

"Yeah, these holiday times can be a little stressful, and the cold doesn't help at all."

"Don't worry mom...I love you."

"I love you too, Cream."

* * *

Amy sat in front of her phone, cup of tea beside her. She took another sip of her tea, breathing deeply in an attempt to calm her nerves. "This is your chance, Amy. Try and get a better life. It's now or never." She told herself in an attempt to muster courage. Finishing her tea, she grabbed the phone and dialed a number. She waited for the phone to ring. As she heard the phone pick up, she said, "Hello, this is Amy...How are you? That's good. Don't worry, I'm fine after last night. You remember that diner I've told you about? Right? Um...You want to go there with me for lunch today?...You will? Great! Time? How does 1 o'clock sound? Great. I'll see you there then. Bye, Blaze."

She hung up the phone.

* * *

AN-Finished. For the last time. CHALLENGE COMPLETED. And this chapter is SO SHORT. But I suppose it doesn't need to be long.

Wrapped up some stuff, gave some lulz with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and pretty much gave everyone a happy ending. Yay.

Well, that's that for Holiday Highway. I'm glad I managed to finish this in time for Christmas.

If you're reading this on Christmas Day-Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! (But honestly, who reads fanfiction on Christmas Day? I don't.)

If you're not, well, Happy...rest of the year, I suppose.

Leave a review if you'd like, though I suppose it's a little pointless now that I'm done.


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